Lesson 35 Written Communication

Coaching for College Students

Lesson 35 – Communication I - writing

Scenario:  A researcher comes up with a 100% cure for cancer – but because of neurological problem, the researcher is unable to communicate the cure to others. 

While the scenario is extreme, the point is:  You might have solved a great problem, created the best app ever, and found a way to combat world poverty, but if you can’t get your message across, it gets lost.

So, what makes up communication?

Written communication

Verbal communication

Body Language

Nuances and jargon

Written Communication:

To be an effective communicator, you need to write well.  In this day where you have to express yourself in 140 characters for Twitter, which sometimes is too limiting.  You condense characters for text messages like UR for You Are. 

 Frequently we lapse into phrases that may be familiar to some of your audience but not all.  We use expressions like “After the kickoff, the game went south”. (Huh?)  The meaning of “went south” is that it fell apart, but when we use informal phrases, we can leave some people confused.  In my classes I’ve had international students what have asked what I meant by a certain informal phrase (or … more likely, DIDN’T ask and left class confused).  In writing, you need to be succinct and logical. 

Business English is different than English literature.  I remember a three paragraph memo from working at Citibank.  The first paragraph basically said “we like the project”; the second paragraph said “But, we might have some questions”; and the last paragraph said “We don’t really like the project”.  It wasn’t that clear and clean.  You could sense the writers didn’t want to say that his business unit didn’t like the project immediately, so give some praise to the developers.  Consider your audience.

Can you improve your writing?  YES

Why do you think you took 12 years of English, followed by college English classes.  Practice.  For students, write your papers and go to the campus writing center (or writing lab – most campuses have them) and let somebody critique your writing so you can improve it.  For non-students, write and have a friend colleague help you.  I used to have my daughter review my papers for suggestions and positive comments.

Assignment:

Write a two page analysis of your job.  Send it to somebody (or more than one) to review and critique.

Write two pages of goals, where you are at and where you want to be.  Review it for quality writing.

Quote for today: “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”― Toni Morrison